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sgiving peking turkey posted on december 17 2010 by thegastrognome somehow somewhere i got the idea that i needed to make a peking turkey for thanksgiving this year it was extravagant cross cultural a project it was perfect most people just looked at me sideways as i excitedly described my plan i even found evidence that someone had done it before and was able to use their recipe to guide me my parents left town for thanksgiving and left to my own devices i took over their kitchen nicer than mine and there s a dishwasher and created a feast with my friends photo by valentina vitols i was also lucky enough to have the amazing valentina at thanksgiving dinner so she is responsible for the incredible photos of the meal we set the turkey on a bed of sliced radishes and scallions and sliced it in traditional peking duck style with the skin separated from the meat coming from a girl not really enthralled by traditional roast turkey this was my personal favorite preparation of turkey it took a little bit of work but not much more than a brined bird about 20 minutes the day before and two hours plus prep and resting time on the day of photo by valentina vitols this is my sweet potato gnocchi from an old recipe sauteed with sage i m a sucker for dough based items so this was a great alternative to traditional mashed or baked sweet potatoes photo by valentina vitols k and t brought these super easy and quick appetizers so easy that since the kitchen was in such heavy use k was able to prepare these while sitting on the floor with a cookie sheet just unroll a sheet of pilsbury crescent dough spread with cream cheese top with a a layer of roast beef and a little arugula roll up slice and bake not my usual route but they were delicious and i could definitely see doing riffs on this with herbs and horseradish for extra zing they were a huge hit photo food by valentina vitols these would be even better if only we had a little bacon someone said perhaps it was r valentina s husband as she crafted these little arepitas mini venezuelan corn pockets bacon was procured we had to add it to butter for the oyster stuffing if i m honest arepitas were stuffed beecher s cheese curds and bacon and then consumed i m impressed that valentina managed to snap a photo but she s good like that it wasn t a traditional thanksgiving by any means but it was a delicious one with good friends good wine and great food filed under chinese dinner event home cooked meal tagged asian turkey chinese thanksgiving peking turkey thanksgiving leave a comment steamy whole wheat kabocha rolls posted on november 30 2010 by thegastrognome the heat in our apartment appears to be controlled by martians so the cool days have been inspiring me to do something i fear like the reaper bake by martians i may actually mean the girls that live below us point is its cold during the day so instead of being productive with work i want to bake i had an idea in mind though stumbling across this post confirmed to me that it was a good idea i also had a kabocha squash my very favorite kind sitting on the counter squash winter warm bake visions of warm buttery rolls floated through my head emitting puffs of steam when you pulled them apart letting pats of butter melt into their every crevice knowing that baking isn t my forte i set out to make something involving flour eggs and squash and then a few quick hours later there they were too hot to handle ready to fulfill all of my bread related fantasies if you still have giant amounts of cranberry sauce left as i do it makes a great compliment to these whole wheat kabocha squash rolls 1 small to medium kabocha squash canola oil 1 2 cup warm water 1 5 tsps baking yeast 2 tsps brown sugar 2 eggs 2 cups white flour 1 cup whole wheat flour 3 tsps salt more flour for the board rub the oil on the outside of the squash and roast it until soft for me this was about 30 minutes in a 375 oven cut it open scoop out the guts and toss then scoop out the meat and save put the water and the yeast into the bowl of a food processor then add the sugar leave it for a few minutes then add the eggs and squash about 2 cups and process until smooth at this point add the salt and leave the processor going on low and add the flour through the tube once all three cups are in let it process until it forms a ball or close to it you ll probably want at least a little more flour but i err on the low side its easier to add than subtract once you ve got it in a ball place on a floured board cover with a towel or plastic wrap and let rise for an hour roll in to balls i got ten out of this cover and let rise another 45 minutes to an hour if your house is freezing you can turn on the oven and let it come up to 375 degrees while you sit in front of it during this time either way place on a floured pizza stone or baking sheet and put it in the oven after about 5 minutes open the oven and splash a little water in this gives the rolls a crustier exterior let it keep baking for about 25 minutes in total then cool and eat or don t cool and eat filed under baking tagged kabocha rolls squash whole wheat 4 comments gin class learning to love a new spirit and a contest posted on november 13 2010 by thegastrognome no b said definitely on the phone when i asked if he wanted to attend a free gin class with me that night i was taken aback by this sudden change of heart usually he can be bribed anywhere with the thought of free booze i had emailed him but when he called i thought i d bring it up the phone rang again seconds later after he had seen the email gin class i thought you said gym class i sighed in relief that my boyfriend had not been kidnapped by alcohol hating aliens if you are a gin lover you can stop reading right now as i understand it gin aficionados don t like hendrick s by whom the class was sponsored also this post is the story of me learning to appreciate a new beverage and encouraging others in the anti gin coalition to give it a shot if you already like gin you don t need encouraging on the other hand if you re like me and think most gin and gin based cocktails leave you with that feeling that you just got lost on the way to the bar and ended up in grandma s perfume drawer then this is for you the class was sponsored as i said by hendrick s gin much like their branding which i was exposed to a lot of that night it was fun light hearted and educational side note i heart their branding check out their website at the end of class we got field guides to hendrick s gin it s hilarious informative and full of cool facts amusing anecdotes and cocktails that i want to drink right now since i ended up with an extra copy of hendricks field guide i m giving it away to the best gin related story comment or cocktail that gets left in the comments by december 1st back to class where we learned to make a traditional gimlet as well two other twists on the drink it wasn t really the actual cocktail that was so informative to be honest i don t remember the ratios that we learned but i do remember learning the appropriate way to hold perpendicular to and over your dominant shoulder shake front to back like a piston and open a well placed thump to the side a boston shaker i don t remember how much st germain we put into the gimlet that was my favorite but i do remember learning why the st germain worked so well in the cocktail this is a chart of the botanicals that are involved in the flavoring of hendrick s gin by pairing up the additional flavors of the gimlet or whichever cocktail of choice is being made with these botanicals the cocktail becomes this little microcosm of flavors that all hold hands and sing we are the world what have i been drinking too much of that gin let me explain so the hendrick s is in this gimlet with the st germain st germain is an elderflower liquor so the elderflower matches up with the same botanical in the gin and all of a sudden it becomes this vaguely sweet completely mild and smooth but intensely elderflower ish cocktail another variation played a similar trick using orange bitters to go with the orange peels in the botanicals i like elderflower better so i wasn t as big of a fan of the citrus version but given the eleven options for botanicals shown in the picture here i could dream up ideas for a while indian themed cocktails with coriander tea based cocktails with chamomile the mind boggles somewhere in the course of the class my mindset about gin began to change no longer were the botanical flavors the enemy blocking the path to good clean fun er beverages instead they are now my jumping off point for creating any number of unique cocktails my personality tends to lead me to want to attack disagreeable flavors to overpower them like with a dirty martini i d rather taste briney olive juice than bad vodka my biggest takeaway from the class was to do the opposite find the flavor i do like embrace it nurture it cradle it and let it grow up to be a full cocktail flavor filed under cocktails 4 comments eating in washington d c ben s and amys posted on november 7 2010 by thegastrognome somehow in my entire life i had somehow neglected to ever get to our nation s capitol this little situation was rectified recently when i landed for the wedding of friends of mine tracey another college friend of mine was excited to take this moment to show me the food of the area so i have to admit i walked by the white house on the way to a sandwich shop i did see the washington monument from the deck of a bar serving me drinks my trip was not entirely void of culture history and that thing housed in the city oh yeah our government that said time was limited and the food was delicious ben s is a washington tradition but chili poured over a hot dog is not really my type of food hesitantly i agreed to go since she was the guide i regretted ever having doubted tracey s excellent taste that is a woman who knows her food and ben s it is a place that knows their half smoke aka what the rest of us call a chili dog the meat itself was what i felt really made the combination work the whole thing was a messy proposition with the chili soaking into the vaguely sweet yet bland bread transforming it into a spice spiked but disintegrating partner of the meat the meat held up though like a circus strongman lifting balloon dumbbells of bun that little snap of skin that s required of meat in tube form was present as was the requisite grill flavor sitting at the counter we soaked in the atmosphere of ben s like the bread soaked in the chili bustling hustling the staff were hard working but clearly proud of their handi work and pleased with the grins and groans of enjoyment coming from us and everyone chowing down in the restaurant later that day we trekked out to a different part of town weathering high heat and humidity to walk a mile from the nearest subway station again i silently questioned the worth of this trip both tracey and a number of my twitter buddies had suggested it but pizza i can get good pizza anywhere and it s hot and i m sweaty are we there yet then we were there and when i took my seat at the bar and these showed up next to me right there by my left elbow were hundreds of anchovies silently curing in zippy fragrant olive oil clearly there was one order that i was going to make before i got any further the anchovies the very same ones i was snuggling up to at the bar were presented to me like fishy stripes amongst the rainbow of soft grilled peppers olive oil was in no short supply in this dish nor in any dish at two amys lucky for us eaters they use a good kind adding a light zing to everything but next up for us was a totally different kind of fat possibly my favorite for eating straight up the kind that comes from a certain adorably dirty four legged animal that makes an oink lardo sliced in to long ribbons like handmade papardelle noodles at an italian restaurant noodles these weren t though thin slips of meat would disappear within a mere instant of landing on your tongue leaving only a porky memory of what once was lardo cured pieces of fat back is light in texture and rich in taste the whole plate that came as a starter barely had a dent in it by the time our pizza arrived yeah it was as good as it looks somehow i remained un bothered by the shell on clams that had to be picked apart before we could eat the juices were immediately diluted amongst the other juices in which the herbs were afloat from the cheese and of course the ever present olive oil the meal was overall incredibly good we were a little squished in against the bar but the advent of air conditioning after our walk was such a relief that our own comfort was plenty mollified the service was a little harried and flaked out we had to wait for a knife to slice our pizza for example that said as you can tell from the post the food quality was high enough to over come any misgivings about the service filed under pizza travel 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